1 business caught in set-aside watch

City on guard for `front' firms since '99 report

November 15, 2001|By Gary Washburn, Tribune staff reporter.

More than two years after a Tribune investigation found that a controversial janitorial company won millions of dollars worth of city contracts by falsely portraying itself as woman-owned, city officials have discovered only one other firm that cashed in on affirmative action set-asides under questionable circumstances, a top official said Wednesday.

"The question is what you can prove," said David Malone, the city's chief procurement officer. "Do we think there may be others? Sure. And if there are, we are going to freeze them. There are audits and visits to these companies, investigating all paperwork. If they are out there, we are going to find them. That's our goal, to root them out. They've got to go."

As part of what was portrayed as a crackdown on "front" companies that falsely represent themselves as owned by minorities or women, the city last year decertified Holly Marine Towing after the woman who purportedly headed the firm failed to disclose the nature and extent of her husband's involvement in its operation. But there has no been no action since against any other of the hundreds of companies that get special consideration by claiming ownership by minorities and women.

In 1999, the Tribune reported that Windy City Maintenance, a company supposedly operated by a woman, in fact was controlled by male members of the Duff family, a clan with ties to Mayor Richard Daley as well as to organized crime figures. Following those disclosures, the city conducted its own five-month investigation. It concluded that Windy City was controlled by men, and the firm was stripped of its special status.

Malone insisted that his department is aggressive in checking for misrepresentation.

"In my office we have a group of people who work diligently on compliance monitoring and certification to make sure no one is being certified who shouldn't be. We work on that every single day," he said.

Malone spoke to reporters after being grilled at a City Council Budget Committee meeting by African-American aldermen over what they contended is the city's lackluster performance in dealing with black-owned firms.

Members of the council's black caucus two years ago were angered to learn that only 9 percent of city contracting went to African-American companies.

Malone reported Wednesday that the figure for the first nine months of this year stood at just 10 percent; contracting with all categories of minority firms represented 26 percent of the $1.6 billion expended, with women-owned firms netting another 8 percent.

Malone told the committee that the $153 million in contracts that have gone to black-owned companies so far this year represents a 20 percent increase in dollar volume from a year ago. But that news carried little weight with some African-American aldermen.

"I think it is disgracefully low," declared Ald. Toni Preckwinkle (4th). "I am sorry he is satisfied with it. What is the African-American population of the city, more than a third? It's paltry."

"We ought be grateful we have 10 percent?" said Ald. Dorothy Tillman (3rd). "No, we are not grateful. ... When you ride into our community you don't see blacks working. It's a joke. Blacks are the largest group in the city."